Double Dare

Nickelodeon today welcomes kid stars from some top-rated network sitcoms for two rounds of Celebrity Double Dare at its studios at Universal Studios Florida.Competing will be Zachery Ty Bryan and Jonathan Taylor of Home Improvement, Tatyana Ali of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air and Chelsea Hertford of Major Dad.The episodes are being taped as part of a new season of Family Double Dare, a spinoff of the popular and messy game show Super Sloppy Double Dare in which families of kids and adults test their speed and agility in physical stunts.

Zoe Bell is taking her biggest jump yet. Best-known for her stunt work on the television series "Xena: Warrior Princess" and as the stunt double for Uma Thurman in both "Kill Bill" movies, Bell is making the leap to Hollywood actress. "I guess it was an easy transition in the sense that I didn't know any different," says Bell, remembering her work on Quentin Tarantino's "Death Proof," a campy 2007 thriller that featured Bell playing herself in a breakout role. "It's not like I was a trained actor who then had to try and be herself.

There was a time when Marc Summers' age was one of the best-kept secrets in television.To look at the Nickelodeon quiz-show host is to ponder the inscrutability of his years. You detect not a crinkle in Summers' tawny smooth-as-sherbet complexion, nary a gray strand in his full head of hair, no paunch on his trim figure. He is a Dick Clark for the '90s.As host of Nickelodeon's breakthrough game show, Double Dare, which premiered in 1986, Summers was perfect. Never as young as he looked, he gave Nickelodeon a game-show host with experience.

Ever dream of being on television? This may be your chance under the lights and with the stars. Nickelodeon is looking for a studio audience -- including children 5 or older -- to take part in tapings of its show Double Dare 2000. In the show, competing families try to outscore each other in two rounds of intense trivia, outrageous dares and double dares. Then the lucky winners (if you can call them lucky) advance to the craziest of physical challenges -- the eight-stage obstacle course -- and try to slide, slip and splash their way to slime-covered victory.

Q. Can you help me find out where TV's new game show Double Dare is filmed? A. Double Dare is shot in Philadelphia. Family Double Dare is shot in Manhattan.Q. What can you tell me about Avery Brooks, who plays Hawk on Spencer: For Hire?A. The 6-foot-1-inch actor was born in Evansville, Ill. He attended Oberlin College in Ohio, and earned a master of fine arts degree from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J., where he has taught acting for the past 14 years. An accomplished singer (his mother was one of the first blacks to receive a graduate degree in music from Northwestern University, and his father sang in the gospel choir Wings Over Jordan)

When bean counters tally the economic benefits to Orlando of hosting this weekend's NBA All-Star Game, they should be sure to add this: the purchase of several pairs of blue jogging pants, size 22.That's what the frantic crew of Nickelodeon's Double Dare had to find at the last minute to outfit four basketball all-stars for a special segment of the game show that was taped Friday at Nickelodeon Studios at Universal Studios Florida. The episode airs at 11 this morning on the cable channel.

Debby Beece still grimaces when she talks about Nickelodeon's gray days in 1982.''I was on maternity leave, and they called me and said, 'You've got to hear what these kids are saying.'''I remember dragging myself out of the house, and when I got there these kids were just saying the worst things about us. They called us the doo-doo channel and said they would never watch. And if they did watch they said they would never, ever talk about it with their friends, because they were so embarrassed about who we were.

Zoe Bell is taking her biggest jump yet. Best-known for her stunt work on the television series "Xena: Warrior Princess" and as the stunt double for Uma Thurman in both "Kill Bill" movies, Bell is making the leap to Hollywood actress. "I guess it was an easy transition in the sense that I didn't know any different," says Bell, remembering her work on Quentin Tarantino's "Death Proof," a campy 2007 thriller that featured Bell playing herself in a breakout role. "It's not like I was a trained actor who then had to try and be herself.

The next book in the Harry Potter series goes on sale at midnight Friday, and young readers will be lining up at area bookstores. One of those will be the Borders bookstore at 9441 W. Colonial Drive in Ocoee. To celebrate the arrival, the shop will host a breakfast celebration from 7 to 9 a.m. today and a Harry Potter party beginning at 7 p.m. There will be games, activities and refreshments for children. For more information, call 407-532-2269. DOUBLE DARE YOU Nickelodeon is looking for a studio audience -- children 5 or older -- to take part in several tapings of its show Double Dare 2000.

Let other game shows make you rich. Nickelodeon's Double Dare 2000 is content to make you messy. The new game show - which gives a sneak peek at 9:30 tonight on the cable kids' network and moves into its regular 5 p.m. weekday slot on Monday - specializes in dousing contestants with Goooze, Gak and Slime. It's a familiar concept to parents and children who watched - or participated - in Double Dare, Family Double Dare and Super Sloppy Double Dare, the game's previous incarnations that were cornerstones of the Nickelodeon schedule for seven seasons starting in 1986.

Is your family outgoing? Likes trivia? Likes to get really, really messy? Then you might be just what Nickelodeon Studios is looking for, the perfect contestants for Double Dare 2000. It's a fast-paced game show where families answer trivia and complete wacky physical stunts to win prizes. Auditions will be held at Universal Studios Florida from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. Auditions are open to families of four - two adults and two children between the ages of 7 and 14 - and all four must be present for the auditions.

Twist it, mix it, stretch it and squish it. Gak can be whatever you wish.But the gooey, neon-colored slime used on Nickelodeon television's Double Dare game show hardly rivals the blob now looming over Capitol Hill: the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.That's GATT, the deal promoting free trade to be debated - and possibly voted on - by Congress this week. The firefight over President Clinton's push for GATT might even serve as a remake of Super Sloppy Double Dare, the messiest game show ever on the children's network.

Marc Summers will never forget the first time Nickelodeon took its trademark game show Double Dare out of the television studio.The response to the cable channel's promotional event in a Virginia Beach, Va., mall in 1987 took everyone by surprise.''A jillion kids showed up,'' said Summers, who became a kid hero hosting Double Dare and its messy variations.The children were so eager to get slimed that they had to be held back with ropes. It was the seed of something big.Seven years later, kids are still so hot to grovel in green goo that they will pay - or make their parents pay - for the opportunity.

It was the dreaded double-dog dare.That and a temperature of 6 degrees got a 6-year-old Akron boy more than he bargained for.As any fan of the 1983 movie A Christmas Story knows, a double-dog dare cannot be ignored. The movie is the story of 9-year-old Ralphie's quest for a BB gun.In one scene, one of his classmates is ''double-dog dared'' to stick his tongue to the flagpole to see if it really will freeze.He does, and it does.On Wednesday morning, movie fantasy became embarrassing fact when an Akron boy took up his friends' dare and put his tongue on a cast-iron fire hydrant.

Universal Studios Florida's theme park may offer a slew of attractions for kids ages 8 to 80, but only one will be targeted strictly to the under-15 generation.Nickelodeon, the nation's only network for kids, said it will be making Universal its new production home. It will move production to Orlando in phases beginning later this year.The network will occupy two 16,500-square-foot sound stages at Universal that will become an integral part of the studio's visitors tour. Nickelodeon series and specials will be produced at Universal 10 hours a day, seven days a week and every day of the year but Christmas as part of a multimillion dollar, 13-year agreement with the MCA Inc.-Cineplex Odeon Corp.

The shores of East Lake Tohopekaliga will serve as backdrop for the St. Cloud Lakefest, with booths and activities scheduled up and down the lakefront area all day. The festival is sponsored by the St. Cloud Chamber of Commerce.Activities going on all day: Antique, classic and late model car show; arts and crafts exhibits; military exhibits; boat show by Carroll marine and Regal Boats; free long distance telephone calls within the continental U.S., sponsored by AT&T; America's newest anti-submarine warfare gunship naval helicopter on display.

Nickelodeon today welcomes kid stars from some top-rated network sitcoms for two rounds of Celebrity Double Dare at its studios at Universal Studios Florida.Competing will be Zachery Ty Bryan and Jonathan Taylor of Home Improvement, Tatyana Ali of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air and Chelsea Hertford of Major Dad.The episodes are being taped as part of a new season of Family Double Dare, a spinoff of the popular and messy game show Super Sloppy Double Dare in which families of kids and adults test their speed and agility in physical stunts.